User:Communpedia Tribal/Guitar/Beginning Chords

This page contains the dozen or so chords that are usually first learned on guitar. These chords are taught to beginners because they are among the easiest to play, while at the same time being chords that are commonly used in many types of music. Learning these chords will:


 * Help you gain in strength and accurate placement of the fingers.
 * Enable you to strum many popular songs. With this skill you can back up your own singing or play rhythm while other players solo.
 * Enable you to play some chord-based solo music such as arpeggios and chord melodies.
 * Give you a foundation for learning more advanced chords.
 * Give you a start at learning the names of notes and at learning song structure and music theory.

The chords are shown using a common type of diagram called a chord window. This is essentially a picture of the guitar neck. The 6 strings of the guitar are shown as 6 vertical lines, and the frets are shown as horizontal lines. The thickest (6th) string is on the left. The extra-thick line at the top is the nut, or zero-th fret. The next line below it is the first fret; the next line down, the second fret; and so on.

Placement of the fingers is indicated by dots added to the diagram. For example, the following diagram shows the 2nd string being fingered at the first fret.



The note being played is, incidentally, a "c", the same as piano middle c (frequency = 262 cycles per second).

When fretting notes, it is best to position the finger just behind the fret, as close as possible to it without going over. This is the easiest way to get a clear tone -- without buzzing. The principle is that you want to apply maximum force to the fret just ahead of your finger -- the fret that is the end point of the string vibration -- while not wasting too much force in pushing the string down against the fret behind or the nut.

However, the finger should not be placed too far forward, or some of the finger meat will touch the vibrating part of the string, muting it and giving a dull sound.

Finger too far forward.